I AM not long home from a very relaxing and enjoyable summer break to Cambridge.

We spent a few days soaking up the history and the sights of the world famous university city, but also made a few forays across the ‘border’ into Suffolk, notably to visit the charming market town of Bury St Edmunds.

I was struck by the similarities with Inverclyde, and particularly Kilmacolm.

Both can trace their history back to at least Roman times and both have strong connections with early Christianity.

Bury St Edmunds is named after King Edmund – or Edmund the Martyr – who was killed by the Vikings in 869 and became honoured as a saint making his shrine in the town an important place of pilgrimage.

Kilmacolm is thought to have taken its name from the Scots Gaelic language meaning cell or church of Columba, derived from the dedication of a church to St Columba of Iona in the sixth or seventh century.

But I found myself smiling when I saw Bury’s largest landmark. Never mind the ancient Abbey or Moyse’s Hall Museum which was built around 1180 – the British Sugar factory dominates the town, processing sugar beet into refined crystal sugar.

Built around 1925 it processes beet from 1,300 growers and can handle up to 440 lorry-loads of raw material every day. 

The factory has its own power station which powers around 110,000 homes, which is quite remarkable.

Inverclyde has its own historic links with the sugar trade of course. 

For many years the James Watt Dock and the historic Sugar Sheds, pictured, were at the heart of a thriving and hugely lucrative industry, receiving up to 400 ships packed with sugar from the Caribbean for processing in Greenock.

History and tourism play important parts in the local economy of Bury St Edmunds. Last week I was a tourist but returning to Inverclyde it always strikes me how much history and interest we have on our very own doorstep.

It is great to travel and to experience new places and meet new people. Sometimes, though, I think we don’t spend enough time looking at the places we pass through every day without taking the time to find out a little more.

As Frank Sinatra would have said: “It is oh so nice to go travelling but it’s so much nicer to come home.”